Satiate
by a.lakewood
Summary: Piz gets a really big surprise for his birthday. Reviews are greatly appreciated!
1. You Could Mean Everything

Title: Satiate: You Could Mean Everything  
Author: alakewood  
Warnings: Vague spoilers for season three. If you know about Piz's crush on Veronica, you're good. And, after assuming V and Logan are no more, this goes a little AU. Also, strippers ahoy and some semi-misogynistic guys.  
Rating: PG-13, maybe R  
Summary: Piz gets a really big surprise for his birthday.

**xOxOx**

_LIVE! NUDE! GIRLS!_, boasted the flashing neon sign outside of the strip club. Piz felt the blush burning his cheeks before they had even crossed the street.

It was his twenty-first birthday and some of his buddies had come down from Portland to surprise him.

"Sam, I – I just," he started to stutter as he was forced through the door and into a small room with another door, and a counter with a window.

The girl on the other side of the window looked at them tiredly. "ID's," she said.

"Come on, Piz. When was the last time you _saw_ any, much less _got_ some?" Sam asked, to Derek and Jon's agreement. "Just loosen up and have fun. Stare shamelessly at some titties."

Piz rolled his eyes as the girl at the counter wrapped a band around his wrist. "Sorry," he told her.

She pushed his change through the cutout in the glass and said, "Have fun boys," in a tone that made him wonder if, maybe, she were related to Ben Stein.

He tried to not look at the girls performing on the various stages throughout the club, noticed a couple of huge-ass Hi-Def TV's with different sports games on.

Sam had found an empty booth within a couple of feet of one of the stages and set his cooler down in front of the table. He looked up at the girl on the stage. "Nice." He elbowed Piz, who was extremely focused on a baseball game. "Dude. There are _naked girls_ all over, and you're watching _baseball_?"

"Piz, man, _seriously_." Jon pushed him towards the stage and set a dollar bill at the edge.

The stripper, a leggy brunette, finished a little dance for an old guy in a cowboy hat before sliding over Piz. She looked a little thankful for the reason to get away. She glanced at Piz, and his buddies, and smiled slowly. "Hi, boys. How ya doin'?"

"Excellent," Jon said. "It's my friend here's birthday."

She came up off of her elbows, drew her knees together to sit up and kneel. After brushing Piz's hair away from his forehead, she brought his face between her breasts and, pretty much, snuggled him in. "Happy birthday," she said, picking up the dollar and tossing it into the pile behind her, before getting up, the song finishing.

Piz was still in shock as Derek pushed him into a chair along the side of the stage. "You like those titties in your face? Don't you want to motorboat 'em?" Piz laughed with him as he mocked Sam.

"Not really, no," he replied, a new song – Nelly Furtado's _Say It Right_, he was sure – started, and a new dancer came down to the stage. Piz was instantly drawn to the blonde, her petite-but-fit frame. Just entranced by her for some reason he didn't understand, took in the little details like the black lace underwear and the pink mesh shirt. He watched as she strode over to the pole, swung around on it, swirling down to the floor, writhing there for a moment.

As she flipped her hair back off of her face, he understood why. He reached for his wallet with a shaking hand, pulled a couple of dollars out, laid them down.

"There you go, buddy," Sam said encouragingly, handing him a beer.

"Thanks," Piz weakly managed, the now-topless stripper starting right for him.

She turned in front of him, dropping down to a crouch, her back to him, started her dance.

He knew that she was avoiding looking at him, because he knew she'd have recognized him right away if she had seen him, but he could only stare at her breasts as she bounced in front of him, then she leaned back and pulled the underwear off in a move that probably would've qualified her as a professional. She writhed a little more before rising up to her knees and finally looking at him.

"Veronica."

"Piz. Hey." Her eyes betrayed the calm in her voice. "Whatcha doin' here?"

"I was just going to ask you the same thing. But, uh, it's my birthday."

"Well, surprise!"

"No kidding." He set another dollar down.

"I've gotta..." Her fingers trailed across his forehead and pushed his hair behind his ear as he pulled his head towards her.

He breathed in deeply of her perfume and just her, having the decency to look a little ashamed. "Awkward," he said.

"Sorry," she laughed. "I'll come talk to you in a bit, okay?" She stood, giving him a small smile as she headed for another customer.

"You know her?" Sam asked. "_Nice_."

Piz just shook his head. He was totally blown away by the whole situation. And all he could do was sit there and wait for Veronica while images of her dancing on the stage flitted through his memory. Something he never could have imagined and certainly something that would wind up as a recurring dream that would help get him through his lonely nights.


	2. I Think I'm Moving, But I Go Nowhere

Title: Satiate: I Think I'm Moving, But I Go Nowhere  
Author: alakewood  
Warnings: None.  
Rating: PG-13  
Summary: A continuation of the first part.

**xOxOx**

Piz scanned the crowd for Veronica again. She'd said she would be out to talk to him in a little bit, but that had been nearly forty-five minutes ago.

There she was, finally, coming out of a room on the first floor. She came down the stairs, dressed in the same black lingerie she'd been wearing on stage. She smiled at him nervously when their eyes met – Veronica Mars _embarrassed_? – and all the guys in her path stepped aside to let her through. There was one guy, however, that reached out and grabbed her arm. "Where ya goin', honey?" he slurred. "How much for a private dance?"

Piz was amazed at how Veronica's mouth turned into her sweetest, most charming grin as she drawled, "_Honey_, you don't have enough cash, and this girl doesn't accept anything but. Sorry." She was smirking when she started towards Piz again.

"Uh, hey," he said when she was standing in front of him. "Fancy meeting you here."

"Yeah. I know, right?"

"So, um, how did-"

"Hey, Kendra?" Another stripper approached Veronica, eyeballing Piz. "Hi, sorry for interrupting, but Mel wants to see you. Like, right now."

Veronica turned to Piz, eyebrows arched high. "Sorry, but I..." She gestured with her thumb towards the upper level.

Piz shrugged, shaking his head once. Amazing how so many things could change and stay the same all at the same time. "Yeah. It's cool. I'll see you."

She glanced at the clock above the largest TV. "Meet me at Chasers, the bar down on the corner, in an hour."

"Okay." What else could he say?

Once she was gone, Sam was beside him. "Where'd your smokin' hot stripper friend go?"

"Not sure. Wants to meet me at a bar down the street in an hour."

"Awesome," Sam said, clapping a hand on his back. "I'll be your wingman."

**xOxOx**

Piz finally pulled Sam out of the strip club with ten minutes to get to the bar. There was a line, and a bouncer at the door, when they got there. Luckily for him, though, Veronica was already inside and, apparently, chummy with the muscle. She patted his shoulder then pointed to Piz. The bouncer waved them up.

"Bobby," Veronica said, "these are some old friends of mine."

"Any friends of yours are welcome here, sweetheart."

**xOxOx**

Bobby changed his tune about an hour later when Sam started a fight over one of Veronica's...coworkers.

"Remove yourself from the bar before I do it for you," Bobby said, pulling Sam off of the stripper's boyfriend.

Piz stood from the table where he sat with Veronica, where they caught up on the past year or so and she avoided the topic of why she was working at a strip club. "I'll be right back," he told her, then headed over to Derek and Jon. "What's going on?"

"Sam's trying to get on some chick," Derek said.

"And, surprise," Jon began, "she's got a boyfriend. So, we're getting kicked out."

"Well, Sam is, but we've kind of gotta go with him. But you should stay."

"Yeah. Make sure Kendra gets home okay." The way he raised his eyebrows told Piz he was thinking about more than just her safety.

Piz glanced back to Veronica at their table, watched her finish off her vodka-and-something and shake the empty cup at the bartender. He heard her say, "My ice is thirsty," as she handed over the cup with a drunken grin.

"Yeah, you're right. And, uh, thanks. For tonight. It was...fun. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"You can count on it," Jon said. "We want to know more about you and this girl.

"Maybe." Piz waited until they had left the bar before he returned to his table. "Don't you think you've had enough?"

Her eyes narrowed as she looked at him from under dark eyelashes and she let the straw fall from her mouth as she replied, "Since when are you a prohibitionist?"

"Since when are you an _exhibitionist_?" was his immediate reply.

Her grin was huge – and devious – as she leaned back in her chair. She slowly unfastened the top two buttons on her shirt and pulled a crisp twenty from her bra. Her grin became impossibly wider. Another sip of her drink and she set the bill on the table. She reached for his hand over the table.

"V-Veronica," he stuttered.

Her fingers curled into his palm. "Let's get out of here," she said, glancing at the bartender, just in earshot, out of the corner of her eye.

"What's the rush? You know...uh, haste makes-"

"Speed," she interrupted, tugging his hand. "Come on."

"Veronica." He sounded helpless and torn. To see her like this – to _have_ her like this – after not seeing her for over a year and a half.

The look in her eye changed as she repeated herself, "_Come on_."

He stared at her for a long moment before it struck him. "_Oh,_" he said. "Yeah. Let's get out of here."

Holding his hand, she led him out of the bar. Halfway down the block, she let go, letting his arm fall to his side as she took a couple of step back. "Jeez."

"I must say, you play a drunken floozy remarkably well. With all your sleuthing, you must've missed the theatre calling your name." Piz was confused as to why he suddenly felt defensive that Veronica's advances had been nothing more than an act. He'd thought he was over her.

Veronica appeared taken aback by his sarcasm. "Piz." She cocked her head to the side, eyes softening.

"It was...nice to see you again, Veronica." He turned and walked away, not knowing where he was going or how he was going to get home, the whole time thinking, _Idiot, idiot, idiot!_

"Piz!"

He wanted to stop so badly, but he just couldn't.

But he didn't have to because, suddenly, Veronica was at his side. "You can't just walk away like that."

"Why not? You did."

She looked guilty, maybe ashamed, as her gaze fell to the sidewalk. "That's not fair," she said, voice quiet as if she didn't quite believe it herself.

"Look. I just can't to this again. I'm sorry. But good luck with your case, whatever it is."

She was silent for a long moment. "Just let me take you home."

Piz knew he couldn't walk that far without getting picked up for public intox. Ten minutes in a car with Veronica probably was a lot less worse than a night in the drunk tank. "Fine. But that's it."

She gave him a small smile. "Okay."


End file.
